Standing In The Dust
by Pey119
Summary: Sequel to Standing Up With Love (complete)
1. Chapter 1

Nico looked down at the dark-skinned girl, his hair falling into his face just as if he were alive. "She hasn't woken up yet, Will."

"Give her some time." Will walked over from the doorway. "She just died like ten minutes ago. Her body's still here and everything."

"Not for long." Nico eyed the two slaves that had been told to come retrieve the body. "I wonder where they're gonna put it."

"I don't think it matters." Will watched as they carried the body out, but the spirit of the girl remained on that wooden floor. "She'll be stuck here just like us."

Nico sat back against the wall. "How long will it take?"

Will shrugged as he sat next to him. "Could be an hour, honestly."

Nico sighed in frustration as he laid his head on Will's shoulder. In the dimly lit room, they could be alone with their thoughts and away from the living. Even though the living couldn't see them, even though they couldn't hear them, they still felt uncomfortable in the same room as them. It hurt to be walked through, it felt weird to see the habits that people did when they thought they were alone. It was an invasion of privacy on both ends.

"Do you think she'll be scared of us?" Nico asked. "I mean...she's going to be confused. She might not believe that she's dead."

"We'll make her believe." Will wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders. "She'll be okay. She'll learn not to be afraid of us."

"And we'll help her get revenge against her killer," Nico muttered. "It makes me sick to think he'll just keep going about life like nothing happened."

"I know, me too." Will rubbed Nico's arm. "We'll get him. I promise."


	2. Chapter 2

Hazel opened her eyes to the dim lights of that old room. She expected pain, expected to feel her many bruises and cuts.

But it never came.

She looked down at her hands, saw the dark bruises engraved into her skin. When she pressed her finger against one, no pain came as if it had never been there to begin with.

"Woah..." she felt herself grin at the relief. When she looked around to find Frank, her heart stopped when she saw the two young men in the corner. They sat near each other, their pale skin visible in the lighting. "Are you friends of Master Anderson's?"

The blond one looked over at her, a smile breaking out on his face when he saw that she was awake. "How do you feel? We've been waiting for you to wake up."

Hazel sat up with a sense that she was going to float away from the wooden floor beneath her. She looked again, just to be sure, but Frank wasn't in sight. "I..."

"You don't need to be scared of us." the man continued, his voice soft. "My name's Will. I'm not a slave owner or anything like that."

Hazel eyed the rope indent around his neck. "What h-"

"I'm dead." Will stated simply. "I died...a long long time ago. Nico here died even before me. From a sickness."

Hazel backed up. "How? How can I see you? This is all a prank. Frank set this up, didn't he? Or Master Anderson wanted to get back at me. That's what happened."

Will shook his head sadly. "Sorry, Hazel. I saw what you went through. I'm sorry you had to die that way."

Hazel's dark eyes widened. "Died... no..."

"It's why you're without pain." Will explained. "Why you can't feel what he did to you anymore. It's why they don't notice you're just laying in here."

Hazel wiped at her eyes but no tears had escaped. "This... it's impossible... I... I can't go without Frank...I can't go anywhere without Frank. I love him."

"Calm down. You can wait for him." Will ran a hand through Nico's hair, the man in question having rarely fallen asleep. "Can I tell you something?"

Hazel nodded once, shook her head, nodded again.

"Nico died from a sickness." Will repeated. "He became what we now are. Ghosts. So he waited for me. He watched me live until I died. Now look how we are. We're together, everything is okay."

Hazel looked back down at her hands. "I can see the floor through myself."

Will nodded. "That will happen. You don't have a body anymore."

Hazel shivered at a sudden chill that ran through her veins. "What was that?"

Will grimaced. "Someone walked over your grave."


	3. Chapter 3

Hazel stared out of the small window, her dark eyes watching the many slaves below. There was no more forest, no more trees to cover the horrors. They were accepted, they were common. It still made her sick.

"Hazel?" Nico put a hand on her shoulder, his grip comforting and gentle. "Frank...He's dying."

Hazel's head snapped around to look at Nico. "What? No...no...It hasn't even been hours..."

"I know." Nico gestured to the doorway. "Let's go see him. So you can be there when he...when he crosses over."

Hazel nodded quickly. "Take me to him?"

Nico led her out of the room, his eyes scanning over everything in the house. Everything he had seen, everything he had witnessed. It'd never leave that house stain free.

The wood soaked up the emotions, the walls were witness to hell.

"Right in here." he stopped outside of Frank's bedroom. "He's on his bed. His mom's in there."

Hazel rushed into the room as soon as Nico had finished speaking. She saw Frank, pale as ever on that comfortable bed. His mother sat next to him, talking to a doctor who looked as if he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Frank!" she moved to his side and put a hand on his bruised arm, but nobody noticed her. "Frank, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay, now."

"They won't be able to hear you." Nico stepped into the room. "Not until he's completely dead. Then you can talk to him all you want."

Hazel nodded, her eyes never leaving the face of her lover. "I love him, Nico. I really love him. I know it's frowned upon...but I love him."

Nico put a hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay. In a couple hours, you'll be together again. It's all going to be okay."

Hazel rested her forehead on Frank's arm as she breathed in his scent. True love...even though it hurt, it still felt amazing. "I love him..."

"You love him." Nico agreed. "You love him. And he loves you."

"And he loves me..." Hazel whispered to herself. "And he loves me..."


	4. Chapter 4

Frank died thirty minutes later.

Hazel was there, saw his breath leave his body. He felt his heart beat leave his veins, leave his spirit. She saw the way he became immortal in a different way.

"Why isn't he talking?" Hazel asked. "He's just laying there."

"You gotta give it time." Nico watched as the mother was taken from the room. "You took a couple hours to wake up. They had taken your body and everything."

Hazel's face scrunched up in distaste at the thought. "Please... please don't talk about that."

Nico looked down. "Right... sorry."

"It's okay." Hazel looked up when the door opened. "What are they here for?"

Nico eyed the men as they advanced to the bed. "To take his body."

Hazel closed her eyes. "Tell me when it's over."

Nico sighed as the lifeless body was picked up, leaving before the thin trace of soul on the bed. He could barely see Frank's spirit, could barely tell that he was laying there at all. When the men were gone, Nico put his hand on Hazel's shoulder again. "They're gone. And Frank... he's really weak, Hazel."

Hazel opened her eyes in a sense of fear. She looked to the bed, looked over the spirit laying there. "Why can I barely see him?"

"He's ready to move on." Nico guessed. "But he probably can't without you."

Hazel covered her mouth with her hand. "What can I do?"

Nico shrugged. "Let's just wait for him to wake up. That's the first step."

"Right..." Hazel dropped her hand. "Where's... where's Will? Aren't you lonely without him?"

Nico smiled. "He's probably spying to see where they bury Frank for you. And I've been with him for awhile. It takes a day for me to miss him."

Hazel nodded once before her attention went back to Frank again. She rubbed his arms, spoke in his ear, tried anything she could to wake him up.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Next chapter is the last. After this story is over the sequel to Standing Beside Your Love will be published**

* * *

Frank took much longer than Hazel had to wake up, but he did eventually wake up. As Hazel talked to him, convinced him that it was all real, Nico snuck away to finally go talk to Will. Even after what he said, he missed Will after a second of being apart.

He found him at the back door, his eyes on the fields behind the house. As Nico stood next to him, he finally looked over to meet the eyes of his lover. "What happened?"

"He finally woke up." Nico leaned his head on Will's shoulder. "They're talking. He's really weak."

"Do you think they'll stay long?" Will asked.

Nico shrugged. "He's not going to leave without her."

"And she's in an unmarked grave," Will told him. "So she isn't leaving any time soon."

Nico sighed. "Those people are idiots."

"We can't do anything about it." Will ran his fingers through Nico's hair. "All we can do is watch."

"I hate it." Nico wrapped his arms around Will's torso. "I hate it so much."

"It's humanity. It'll get better eventually." Will hugged him back. "It'll get better."

"But it's all stained here," Nico explained. "It won't ever go away. The land is stained, the house is stained. Where I'm buried is stained."

Will stared out the window, stared at the fields of horror. "We can help the spirits when they die. We can at least do that."

Nico nodded. "Yeah...yeah..."

Will kissed the top of his head. "Yeah."


	6. Chapter 6

Hazel got weaker and weaker each day, but no matter what she tried she couldn't move on. Not when her body was laying at the bottom of those stairs, forgotten from even the minds of those who threw her down there. And each day, she grew more and more unable to tell anyone about it.

Some days, Nico and Will couldn't see her. Some days, Frank couldn't hear her. But they could feel each other and the presence they were, could tell when they were close. So they stuck together, let themselves relax in the love that they had for each other.

They watched as the people slowly went away, as the slaves were freed. They watched as the owners died, as the house was eventually abandoned again. They all watched that forest grow back, watched it cover the many bodies buried below that ground.

And eventually, they watched Annabeth and Percy move in.


	7. Books

Book One: Scratching the Surface (complete)

Summary: Piper, Jason, and their kids are moving into a new house, but not everything is as it seems. They didn't used to believe in ghosts. (human AU, character death)

* * *

Book Two: Above the Surface (complete)

Summary: sequel to Scratching the Surface. Nico has moved on, their family is doing well...but why would Nico be trying to warn them?

* * *

 **Prequels** :

(1): Below the Surface (Complete)

Summary: STS universe, kinda a prequel thing. Annabeth and Percy, their kids, and their time at the house.

(2): The Surface (complete)

Summary: Prequel thing to the STS series. Nico's life before he died and everything leading up to his death (Main character death, suicide)

(3): The Holes in the Surface (complete)

Summary: Scratching the Surface universe. Nico's first encounter with Hazel and Frank and their time together before the two others get too weak to show up.

* * *

 **Spin-off series:**

(1): Standing On The Surface (complete)

Summary: STS universe. What would have happened if Nico hadn't killed himself. (Solangelo, mentions of suicidal tendencies)

(2): Standing Up With Love (complete)

Summary: What would have happened to Percy and Annabeth in this universe. (Solangelo, human au, ghost!Nico, ghost!Will)

(3): Standing In The Dust (complete)

(4): Standing In The Past (complete)

(5): Standing Beside Your Love (complete)

Summary: Piper and Jason move into a house full of ghosts. (Solangelo, Percabeth, Jasper)

(6): Standing For Your Love (complete)


End file.
